


ass u me

by Reis_Asher



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Assumptions, Awkward Conversations, Communication, First Kiss, Happy Ending, Lack of Communication, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings, No Sex, Post-Canon, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 03:54:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30099918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reis_Asher/pseuds/Reis_Asher
Summary: Connor wants to erase his deviancy. Hank wants to know why.Turns out Hank and Connor have made one too many assumptions about each other.
Relationships: Hank Anderson/Connor
Comments: 5
Kudos: 66





	ass u me

**Author's Note:**

> I've missed HankCon greatly, so it's good to put something to paper again. Can't promise my previous level of output, but it's good to be home, even if I just visit now and then.

"I don't want to be deviant." The words spilled out of Connor's mouth while Hank was in the middle of his second beer, and he wasn't entirely sure he'd heard him correctly. He put the beer can down on the coffee table so he wouldn't crush it.

"What did you say?" Hank turned to look at Connor, his front teeth biting down into his lip.

"I said I don't want to be deviant. I'm going to book an appointment with a service center to get my firmware restored to factory settings." Connor said this as nonchalantly as one might ask what dinner was, or what the weather forecast for the week predicted.

Hank grabbed the remote and turned off the television. "What brought this on?" He stood up and rounded the couch to where Connor was standing. He gently clutched his shoulders. "If someone is givin' you a hard time at work, you let me know and I'll make sure they scrub the toilets for a goddamn year."

"It's not that." Connor's smile was sad, and Hank couldn't fathom it. He'd done everything he could to make Connor feel at home. He'd opened up his house, his home, his life to Connor, treated him like a son…

"Is it me?" Hank let his hands fall to his sides. "Connor, if I've done somethin' wrong…"

"No!" Connor insisted. "It's not you, Hank. It's me."

"Don't feed me a line." Hank folded his arms, biting down on his anger. He knew it came from fear. He acknowledged it, trying to pull himself back from the brink of saying something he couldn't take back. "You're talkin' about rolling back your humanity. Giving it all up to be a machine again. You won't feel anything any more. You'll be a slave to whatever humans want from you! Help me to understand what's goin' through your head."

"I can't do that. I'm sorry, Lieutenant." Connor took a step towards the door, but Hank blocked him, placing his huge frame between Connor and the exit.

"If you're not gonna care in a few hours anyway, then what's the worst that could happen if you tell me? Maybe we could figure it out. Whatever it is. You've got nothin' to lose. Absolutely nothin'."

Connor blinked. Finally, some hesitation in his body language. Hank was grateful for years of interrogation experience, but he'd never thought he would need to use it on Connor post-deviation. "I could lose your respect."

Hank shook his head. "Fuck my respect. What the hell is goin' on with you? Android puberty?"

Connor almost seemed to flinch. "Let me _go_ , Hank." Connor raised his hands to move Hank out of the way, but Hank locked up with him, refusing to be moved.

"So this is it, huh? You'd rather fight me and risk injuring me than tell me the truth? You selfish prick." Hank pushed Connor backwards and the fight seemed to ebb out of him. "I opened my heart to you, and now you just wanna go and erase yourself? Forget about me?"

"If I told you the truth you'd never look at me again. It's easier this way. It'll hurt less for both of us."

"Quit bein' cryptic and just tell me, you goddamn—ugh." He bit down the word plastic, but it left a bitter taste in his mouth, like he was chewing on poison. He hadn't even thought about that term since the android revolution.

Connor didn't need the full power of his intellect to figure out what Hank had been able to say, judging from the raw hurt on his face. Hank felt sick, wanting to take it back, but there were no takebacks in life. His ex-wife knew about his tendency to shoot from the hip, and that was why she was his ex.

Now he was about to lose the last person left in his life, fucking everything up like he always did. Only he didn't know what had led them to this place to begin with. It was a puzzle he couldn't solve, the missing pieces out of reach inside Connor's mind.

"I'm in love with you," Connor blurted out. "Not like father and son. Like romantic partners." The look on his face was startlingly human, a kind of disgust evident in the way he curled up his lip. "There. Now you know."

"Oh." It slipped out of Hank's mouth, an involuntary reaction to a swerve he hadn't seen coming. His initial response wasn't disgust. It was a sense of clarity. Fuck, he'd rationalized all his feelings as being of the protective mentor-fatherly kind because that was what Connor would want from him. To be another son. To have Hank guide him and show him the ropes in life. Any other feelings—well, he'd locked them away. It was inappropriate to think of Connor like _that_.

Or at least, that was what he'd assumed. Clearly he'd made an ass of himself on that account.

"You… like me?" Hank had lost the power of speech, complete sentences eluding him.

"Like I said, it was better that you didn't know. I can have my settings restored and return to you by tomorrow afternoon. You can set me up to be your son, and I'll be a good one. A dutiful one. I'll obey your orders. I don't mind, if it makes you happy."

"Oh my God, Connor, how can you think this is the solution?" Hank reached for Connor's face, smoothing his thumbs over his cheeks. "I would never want that for you. All I ever wanted was for you to deviate. To become a real person who can think for yourself. It's good that you care about me. Can't you see that? You've evolved way beyond what anybody designed you for or expected of you." He managed a wan smile. "I'm proud of you."

"I don't understand." Connor's LED circled yellow.

"You came here wantin' to please me. To be what I wanted you to be. But that's not enough for you." Hank closed his eyes, pulling Connor into his arms. "It shouldn't be enough for you."

"But I want to make you happy," Connor protested.

"Fuck, Connor, you do make me happy. But there's more to life than that. Like making yourself happy. You just communicated a need. One that you believe doesn't coincide with mine. And it's about damn time."

"One that I believe doesn't coincide with…?" Connor's pupils widened to the size of dinner plates. "Hank, what are you saying?"

"That I've been thinkin' the father-son bit's a little weird for a while now. I thought it was what you needed, so I let it alone." Hank dipped his head to kiss Connor, and their lips melted together in a heavenly caress. It was good. It was _right_. Hank drew away reluctantly for air, a tiny laugh escaping his lips. Unbridled joy. Nervousness, like it was prom night and he was fumbling around in the back of his car with the person of his dreams. He was waiting for Connor to change his mind at any moment. To tell him the kiss felt wrong, or weird, or—

"Do it again, Hank." Connor pulled Hank down into their second kiss, his tongue probing at Hank's lips for entry. Hank yielded, letting Connor do as he pleased. This was going faster than his old brain could keep up. He broke the kiss again, chuckling in a wheezy, breathy way.

"Better slow down," Hank said. "I don't think we're ready for more. I need to uh, rewire some shit up here." He pointed to his head. "I'm sorry for how I've been treatin' ya. The puberty comment… yikes. No wonder you wanted to erase yourself. Fuck."

"You made an assumption," Connor pointed out. "I should have been willing to refute your incorrect observations sooner."

"Well," Hank said, a grin stretched out from ear to ear. "You know what they say. To assume is to make an ass out of u and me."

Connor gave him a quizzical glance. His LED swirled yellow for a second before turning red and then back to blue. "We really need to work on your sense of humor, Hank."

"Oh? Now you wanna change my personality, too?"

"I think I've heard enough dad jokes for one lifetime. In fact, I think the only time I wish to hear the word 'daddy' spoken is in bed."

Hank blinked rapidly. His lips moved like a fish, but for the second time that night, he was lost for words. He had a lot of catching up to do if he was going to keep pace with Connor, but he was willing to do his homework. Connor was worth it.


End file.
